SJT

The Situational Judgement Test (SJT) is one of the requirements to apply for the UK's Foundation Year 1 as a Junior Doctor. It accounts for 50% of the allocation point system.

Timing

It is usually done between the months of December and January i.e. after submitting your FY1 application (usually done between October & November) and before the deaneries allocation come out (usually in March).

Location

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SJT would take place solely in the UK and it would be arranged by your school. Due to public health measures regarding travel and indoor gatherings, the UK Foundation Programme teamed up with Pearson VUE to deliver the test through their worldwide testing centres.

The year-specific timeline will indicate when the booking period for the SJT is. If there aren't any Pearson VUE test centres in your country, or if all its SJT time slots are fully booked, you may also take the SJT from home by registering for it (through Pearson VUE also) as a virtually-proctored remote exam.

Format

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic when the exam was taken on-site in the UK, the SJT was a paper-based exam. As of December 2020-January 2021, it became a computer-based assessment and incorporated audiovisual questions as a result for the first time.

Overall it tests applicants on topics relating to professionalism, ethics, teamwork, decision-making, personal growth, etc. They will do this by providing a scenario and asking the applicant to answer to one or more questions relating to that scenario through three different styles of questions:

Rated Questions
Ranking Questions
Multiple Choice Questions

Each style of question will represent a section of the exam.

Resources

Unfortunately for those studying for the December 2020-January 2021 SJT cycle, there weren't any updated sources that reflected the new format of the exam. Hopefully, this will change for the next batch of applicants that will be taking their SJT between December 2021 and January 2022. Regardless, here is a list of resources students have found useful throughout the years:

Materials

Oxford Assess and Progress: Situational Judgement Test (aka Oxford Handbook)
The Situational Judgement Test at a Glance
Get Ahead The Situational Judgement Test
General Medical Council guides

Question Banks & Practice Exams

Official Practice Papers provided by UKFP
- 2 are on their website as pdf files. You can find them here.
- 1 is on the Pearson VUE site. You can find it here.
  - This one will also allow you to familiarize yourself with the exam interface (for example, you cannot jump to a specific question or section, you can only click "previous question" or "next question").
  - Even though this practice exam was the only resource available that included the new format of questions (for those that took the exam in December 2020-January 2021), it did not come with answer keys, explanation, nor score. Hopefully, this will be updated by UKFP for the next batch of applicants.
PassMedicine
Pastest
BMJ On Examination

Webinars and Videos

I found this webinar very helpful: it provides an overview of the exam, its most recent change (regarding the new style of questions introduced for the incoming 2021 Foundation Year 1 doctors), and explains how it is graded.

Content Covered

The General Medical Council acts as the ethical body regulating physicians' behaviour in the UK and the SJT tests many aspects of those ethical guidelines. This type of content is usually part of a British Medical School curriculum; if you did not cover it during Medical School you can check out these two sections of the GMC website:

The GMC's Good Medical Practice guide is the main reference for ethics, professionalism, and the duties of a doctor in the UK. It is around 70 pages but makes for an easy read thanks to its bullet-point format.
This GMC page gives fact-sheets on a number of professionalism topics: confidentiality, consent, treating minors, etc. for quick referencing.

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